DENVER – For the first time this season, the MSU Denver outdoor track & field team won't turn left.
 
At least before the meet.
 
Rather than competing in Pueblo, Colo., south of campus via Interstate 25, the Roadrunners will take a more or less straight shot west to Golden, Colo., to compete at the Kit Mayer Classic on Friday and Saturday.
 
And not only is the distance shorter, the Roadrunners will focus on the shorter races, as the majority of the distance runners rest to prepare to compete next weekend at big meets in California.
 
"The relays are the big focus this weekend," MSU Denver coach Janis Christopher said.
 
For the women, the relays include the 4x400 unit of Naleia Sowell, Teagan Garand, Audrynn Street and Allyssa Romero.
 
"I think that's a pretty fast team," Christopher said. "Teagan had a big PR in the 400 last week."
 
In the 4x100, Romero will run with that group for the first time this season, along with Claire Hummel, Jessica Hobson and Jaivion Lattimore. Garand was with the unit two weeks ago, when the wind in Pueblo is estimated to have cost the team two seconds during a 48.71-second effort that is the seventh-fastest in program history. With less wind a bit more speed from Romero, the Roadrunners are expecting big things.
 
"If we finish in the 46s, that should rank us pretty high in the conference," Christopher said. "And if we can get down to 45.9 at some point, that's generally a time that gets you into the National Championships."
 
As a group of four individually, MSU Denver has the 22^nd-best unit in Division II in the 100 – and that doesn't include Romero, who hasn't run the event yet this season.
 
The school record in the 4x100 is 47.80, set by Lattimore, Romero, Garand and Hummel on the same track in Golden in 2021.
 
For the men, Nick Nowlen, Ty Schauer, Zander Irish and Ethan Loper will run the 4x400. Loper is coming off a terrific 48.66 clocking in the 400 that, with the conversion for altitude to 48.77, ranks third in the RMAC this season.
 
"It'll be good to see where we're really at, and hopefully it will give us a good ranking in the conference," Christopher said.
 
A big moment last weekend was PJ Guidry's school-record triple jump of 14.86 meters (48 feet, 9 inches), which currently ranks 14^th in the Division II. It improved his personal best by nearly two feet.
 
"That was fun," Christopher said. "You could see it coming, see the pieces sort of falling into place. It was just a matter of when it would all come together. He had the perfect amount of wind, just a little bit and it was at his back.
 
"He had two big ones (Guidry's initial effort was 14.70 meters). And he was behind the board enough that if he had been on the board, it probably would have been 15 meters – and that usually gets you to the National Championships. To jump 14.7 and then jump further, that was a big confidence-builder to know that it wasn't a fluke. He can do this. And it's exciting to know that if we can just get the approach right on the board, he could go even further."